Folks,What started as a learning experience on putting together a forum, continued as a passion for the internet and lacrosse, and developed into something that took WAY too much time to manage, this site has seemingly become barely a blip on the lax radar. I go months without checking it and I am no longer coaching and following the lacrosse scene. It seems when I do check, there aren't many new posts and there isn't much response to them save for a few. When the NCLF started, there was no social media and this site provided one of the only places to catch up on scores and stories of our Nor Cal Lax scene.

My plan is to let the hosting and domain lapse near the end of February and say good bye to the Nor Cal Lax Forum. Feel free to post your good byes, your favorite stories or people, or if you're interested in taking it over, let me know.

I want to say thanks to the many contributors, and for the generally civil approach that was maintained. A very special thanks and appreciation to Billax for the most important role in giving this site it's wings and keeping it relevant and interesting with his posts over the years. Looking back to 2004, PA Pirate, I recall played at Stevenson and went on to play at North Carolina, was one of the first high school contributors. Thanks to that man, would be interested to know what he's up to now.

Hopefully, when my 4 yr old is ready to play and Santa Rosa City Schools finally adopts the wonderful sport of lacrosse, I'll be coaching and following lacrosse again. Meanwhile, I'll continue to attempt to play in old man leagues and pickup games when possible.

I was saddened to read of your plans to close the forum, Jamie, though I understand your decision. Your decision to start this forum – at just the time Lacrosse was starting to catch fire in Northern California – was prophetic and serendipitous. It gave lots of newbie Lax Dads an opportunity to learn about this game and to share what they had learned with a few thousand others who read this Forum. I was among those newbies!

I'd like to thank a few of the early members of NCLF who sought to share their enthusiasm for the game. Most of us started as neophytes, and through attending games, learning the history of the game, reading about the details and nuance of the game, and talking to other NCLF Dads they met at games, these guys all became sophisticated watchers of the game who could write about a game with perspective, perspicacity, and passion. Here is the list of the guys – in alphabetical order – who contributed more than one thousand posts to the NCLF:

My Son started playing organized lacrosse in 2000 when he was 8 years old and ended up playing through 2016 (his Senior year in College.) I consider myself very lucky to have had such a long run watching my Son play the game we all love!

Moreover, I met literally hundreds of Lacrosse players (and their Dads) from dozens of NorCal High School teams, almost all of whom were - like me - new to the game. It was a great learning experience for me! In 2010, my primary residence shifted from Northern California to North Carolina, but I spent JW's final two HS Lacrosse seasons in NorCal and four College seasons in New Haven, CT. I planned to take in every game ... and I did!

I didn't write up as many games when JW was in college for two reasons: 1) College teams are farther apart than High School teams (e.g., Yale and Cornell are in the same conference, but are 260 miles apart) and 2) the players weren't from a small area such as the Bay Area but rather from all across the nation.I liked the Lacrosse world better when I knew a couple of hundred players from three dozen or so schools. It was still lots of fun to watch my boy play in college, but nowhere near as much fun as watching High School games in NorCal.

And I was able to find out enough about NorCal's NCAA players to write-up those Seniors who had played four years of NCAA College Lacrosse As well as a couple of All-Americans from the MCLA whom I'd known since seventh or eighth grade.

Most recently, as I've known fewer of the NorCal college guys who were current college players, I thought the last contribution I might make to readers of the NorCal Lax Forum was to lay out the tremendous career and income opportunities available to NCAA lacrosse players. To the few Dads of HS age players still reading this wonderful Forum, I encourage you to read my posts on that topic. I do not know of any sport that provides better business opportunities for its graduates than NCAA Lacrosse!

Jamie, thanks for the opportunity you provided to we Geezer writers... and thanks to every Coach my Son had at Lamorinda Lacrosse, Saint Ignatius College Prep, and Yale University!

Finally, though I had to beg my modest Son for this picture, here's what you get for winning three Ivy League Championships in your four years at Yale:

...and three years in the DI NCAA Lacrosse tournament!

In closing, I'm a guy who like hangin' out with other guys and talkin' about guy stuff. These last nearly two decades have been the best years of my life... and the NCLF has been a huge part of that. Thanks for everything, Jamie!

Last edited by Billax on Thu Jan 04, 2018 1:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.

All good things must come to an end... I'm just not very good at endings.

Jamie's post reminded me of a poignant picture of the 2016 Yale Senior laxers – all eight of them – walking off the field for the last time. My son is #4. To me, the impending closure of the NorCal Lax Forum is like the picture above. Lots of great memories, but ineffable sadness that the game, the season, the four year experience with one's teammates has come to an end.

Similarly, the eight guys with more than a thousand posts each – who did the heavy lifting to make the NorCal Lax Forum the top regional Lacrosse forum in the United States – I'd bet would feel the same sadness that's it's all coming to an end.

If the LA Olympic Committee selects Lacrosse as the host's choice, it will be a huge boost for our sport. I was very enthused when I read this article, thinking how great it would be to fly down to La-La Land and watch Olympic Lacrosse for ten days or so! Then mathematical reality intruded. I am currently 76 and I can't fully imagine how decrepit – both physically and mentally – I would be a decade from now.

I just happened to check this site tonight and saw that it will be discontinued. My son, Dan Vinson, played on the first De la Salle team, and later played at Georgetown. I always enjoyed this site and recognize all of the names that Billax listed. I had the opportunity to meet Billax at some games over the years and always enjoyed his enthusiasm for lacrosse. Thank you everyone for your postings during the years my sons, Dan and Mike, were playing locally - and while Dan was playing in college. Great memories.

Moose – many thanks for your kind words about the Forum Jamie started and ran all these years! The years your Son – and later, mine – played High School Lacrosse in NorCal were the best years of my life! I was a Track and Field jock in High School, and later in College. It was a very nice experience. Bur "very nice" is different than great. Our Sons got to play a GREAT game and build VERY TIGHT relationships that will last a lifetime. Lacrosse is just that kind of sport!

It was always a treat watch your Son play! More broadly, it was a treat to observe literally dozens of guys I thought were great to watch... and to know. I consider myself to be wildly lucky to have observed the early days of Lacrosse in NorCal, and then to have seen SO MANY of these young men go on to play college Lacrosse. You were fortunate to be the Dad of one of the very fine NorCal players (as am I). They were scarce early – but now there are SO MANY good ones. A sport as dramatic, athletic, and contentious as Lacrosse will always draw the best of the best.

I was lucky to see many of these VERY, VERY good players (your Son among them). I have enough memories – of enough boys – to last me a lifetime!